


Three Times Marinette and Damian Almost Kissed

by kceedraws



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Childhood Friends, Daminette, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, MariBat, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20973689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kceedraws/pseuds/kceedraws
Summary: And one time they actually did.A series of "what-ifs" and "maybes" (and a hint of jealousy) throughout the years of their friendship.For ozmav's Maribat AU ~





	Three Times Marinette and Damian Almost Kissed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).

> Look who finally got around to making an ao3 account! Many of my followers on tumblr felt that it would be easier to find the fics in a single, centralized place, and I wholeheartedly agree! Looking forward to posting on here more in the future ~

* * *

[ O N E ]

“Being fifteen is hard enough without needing to deal with the banality of these holiday social gatherings,” Damian grumbled aloud.

He adjusted his cuff links and turned towards his oldest friend, who was fixated on her reflection in the mirror next to his. As she pinned back a loose piece of hair, he could see her smile (<strike>his favorite smile where her nose would crinkle</strike>) through the mirror.

“Social gatherings? Most people call them _parties_.”

“Semantics.”

She threw a smirk over her shoulder before focusing again on her outfit’s minute details.

“I don’t know, Bird Brain. I think you should be thankful that your father hosts a lot of parties during the holidays.”

Bird Brain - that actually made Damian smile.

No matter how many years had passed since they first began training together, Marinette refused to use a less demeaning nickname for him. Even though they had stumbled upon each other’s true identities several months ago, she stuck with the tried-and-true epithet.

“And why should I be thankful?” he replied. “You and I both know that it’s as exciting as watching paint dry.”

“True, but at least it gives Master Fu an excuse to come to Gotham during Christmas. You and I would hardly get to see each other otherwise.”

Damn, she got him there. Besides visiting during the summer and the occasional Skype session, the two teen heroes spent the rest of the year apart. Although distance would stifle the growth of most other friendships, it only made Damian itch to see her more often — he’d jump on any opportunity that would let him see Marinette, even for just a few minutes.

His lack of response made her shift to fully face him, and his cheeks warmed to a soft shade of pink.

Whether or not the decision was conscious, Marinette’s dress was the same deep red of his uniform. And she looked _fantastic_ in it.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” she said with a wry, knowing look.

“More like a pesky bug. Truth be told, I’m impressed with your ensemble choices…” Damian swung an arm around her shoulder, continuing,”…because I never thought I’d see the day where you’d actually wear your hair in something other than pigtails. ”

She tilted her head towards him with a cutting reply, but froze when her eyes locked with a small object hanging from the ceiling.

“Uhh…Damian?”

He followed her gaze.

A small, unforgiving sprig of mistletoe hung above their heads.

Damn Alfred and his father at their insistence for festivity.

He had to think fast.

Every second that he didn’t respond would make things _even more awkward than they already were and —_

Damian grasped her hand and planted a chaste kiss on her fingertips.

“That…that counts, right?”

(Marinette could feel his hand still trembling in hers, but was polite enough not to say anything.)

“Yeah…I-I think it does.” She cleared her throat and slipped her hand away, just as he tucked his arms back into himself. “We should -“

“- get to the party now.”

This time, Damian offered his arm in a restrained, gentlemen-like manner. To his relief, Marinette took it with a smile, and they strode down the hallway as if the last ten minutes were a dream.

Little did he know that she still felt her fingertips burn where his lips had been.

* * *

[ T W O ]

“You never cease to amaze me, D.”

Marinette removed the thermometer from under his tongue. 100.5. Not great, but an improvement from earlier.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only eighteen year-old I know who can be bed-ridden by having one itsy bitsy fever.”

“Ha ha ha, justh laugh ith up why don’th y-_**achoo**_!”

“You were saying, Mr. McSneezy?”

Marinette didn’t need to turn around to know that he was sticking his tongue out at her.

Damian laid on his bed in a starfish position, thinking about how he wanted to shrink to the size of a cell and kill off these viruses one by one. He was a _Wayne_ damn it, and he most definitely _did not_ get sick — he was merely feeling under the weather.

She hid her smile as she wrung water from a cool, wet rag into a porcelain bowl; her friend was many things, but a graceful loser wasn’t one of them.

He was, however, a big baby when he was sick and couldn’t get his way.

“_**Angel**_…,” Damian whined after Marinette insisted that he take a nap.

“Don’t even try to argue your way out of this one, Dove,” she said as she sat down at the edge of his bed. With one hand she played with the ends of his hair, and with the other she felt his forehead.

Still warm.

Marinette sighed, her cool hands clasping behind his neck. The way that Damian indignantly sniffed and wiped his nose reminded Marinette of a lion licking its wounds. They had to compromise somehow: taking a nap meant admitting that he was ill, and he had **way** too much pride to ever do that.

“Why don’t I sing to you, Dove?” she mumbled into his ear. “Would that help?”

_Hook_.

He didn’t say anything, but she did notice that his jaw unclenched and his shoulders relaxed. Marinette rubbed the base of his neck and continued, “I could sing you your favorites, if you want me to.”

_Line_.

Her nose brushed against his, so feather-light that Damian almost didn’t even notice it.

“Please?”

Her warm breath brushed against his lips. For a moment, the world melted away to just the two of them. Her gaze fell to his mouth…if-if she leaned in closer she could —

“Alright…buth only becauthe you athked so nithely.”

_Sinker_.

Marinette cleared her throated and shifted her legs underneath her bottom. As she hummed one of their favorite French folk tunes, she stole a glance at Damian and saw something warm - something **_intense_** \- glowing in his eyes.

Marinette felt her face burn.

_I must be catching a cold from him…that’s the only reason, right?_

* * *

[ T H R E E ]

“Stay away from me Damian, I don’t even want to _look at you right now!_”

Marinette chucked her lone black stiletto at a random corner of her room (_she lost the first shoe somewhere down the hall, she didn’t care she didn’t want to think about it or **about him **-_)

“Angel-“

“Do not call me that.”

Damian seethed.

“Fine. _Marinette_, we need to talk about this.”

“Talk about what?!” Marinette whirled around so quickly that sections of hair fell out of its intricate updo. “Talk about how the situation was perfectly normal or how you interrupted when you had no right?”

“Had no…Marinette, that man was about to put his _**fucking hands**_ on you! What was I supposed to do, just stand back while you got manhandled?”

“I was on a date with him, Bird Brain,” Marinette stated, her icy flat stare penetrating him to the core. “News flash: it’s normal for a guy to put an arm around his date’s back as they leave a restaurant. It’s _not_ normal for you to knock him out and drag me back to the Manor!”

She started pacing back and forth in front of him, swearing under her breath the entire time. “And while I agree that he started acting weirdly by the end, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. For Christ’s sake, I’ve been fighting crime alongside you for _more than a decade_! I’m not a shy little ten year-old anymore — I’m twenty-two _**damn it **_— so I shouldn’t need your approval to go have fun for a night!“

Marinette stopped her tirade in its tracks and looked back at him imploringly. In a softer, but still disdainful tone, she asked, “I don’t need a knight in shining armor: I need a friend. A friend who supports my choices, even if they turn out to be mistakes. Do you even have anything to say for yourself, Damian?”

There was a long pause where she was hopeful that he’d see the error of his ways.

“No.”

Marinette blinked. “Pardon?”

To his credit, Damian’s head hung lowly, and he looked up at her through his long, dark lashes.

There was a look in his eyes that Marinette couldn’t decipher. Guilt? Loathing? Pain? She couldn’t tell, and frankly was too afraid to find out.

“I can’t say anything to excuse myself. What I did was…” Damian shifted from one foot to the other, clearly trying to ease the growing levels of anxiety in the pit of his stomach.

“Look, I know I overstepped. And I’m sorry. When you told me you were going on a date, I wanted to be happy for you - but something just didn’t feel right about this guy.”

“You’re not off the hook just because of that. Do you think I’ve never had a bad feeling about some of the women you’ve been on dates with?”

Something stirred deep inside Damian at her admission of jealousy with his past dalliances - all this time, he had no clue that she felt that way - but he fought it down.

“That’s only part of it, Marinette.” He gulped, knowing that the next part would be hard for both of them to swallow. “I researched his background and he’s…he’s been charged with battery and aggravated assault multiple times.”

Damian found the courage to look Marinette in the eye again. “I know it’s nothing that you couldn’t have handled. I know you’re a strong person. I know you’ve dealt with much worse criminals before, but I just couldn’t rest knowing that you could be in danger.”

Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest.

She did not know this information before.

This changed everything.

Damian took a step closer, until he was only a breath away. Marinette found herself rooted to her spot as he searched her face with thinly-veiled urgency. With want. With _need_.

“You have every right to be mad at me,” he murmured. She strained to listen to him, transfixed by his wild yet restrained tone. “But you’re the most important person in my life, Angel. And it’s always terrified me how badly I need to keep you safe.”

Damian traced her jawline while his other hand rested on her hip. She felt her eyelids lower, her heart beat erratically, and her skin burn with a heat that felt so foreign yet so right - she wanted to keep fanning the flame.

Her hands languidly draped themselves along his shoulders, her thumbs gently tracing circles along the exposed skin beneath his collarbones.

Marinette wanted (_ached_) to kiss him senseless in that moment.

But then he pulled away.

Damian was at the door before she could clear the fog from her mind, gripping the frame so tightly that she feared it would snap.

“l’m sorry for everything tonight, Angel. It won’t happen again.”

Despite how loudly the door slammed shut behind him, it was nothing compared to the cacaphony of nerves inside of her.

She really, really needed to lie down.

* * *

[ F O U R ]

They had finally done it.

They won.

The rain didn’t matter. Hell, the length of their battle didn’t matter.

What did matter was that none of them were seriously injured, and their enemies would _never_ be able to commit crimes again.

Of course, new villains would arise. New adversaries. But from the ashes of the chaos, a new beginning for everyone.

Perhaps it was too early to tell, but this change gave the citizens of Gotham something that they always needed: hope.

“I’d say that this is pretty miraculous.” Damian said in disbelief. It was almost…unnatural how the city was granted a fresh start. He heard a giggle to his left and felt a small, yet sturdy pair of warms encircle his waist.

“Miraculous?” Marinette, still transformed as Ladybug, asked him. Her smile was bright as fatigue settled into her muscles and the torrential rain plastered her hair to her skin.

Damian had never seen a sight so beautiful.

She continued, “Funny you should say that. Most people would say amazing or wonderful.”

“Semantics.”

She looked at him strangely - not as Robin, not as Damian Wayne, but as a _man_. The man she loved and would never stop loving.

They poured everything they’d left unsaid over the past few years into searing, desperate kiss. Damian propped her against an alley wall, and firmly wedged himself between her thighs. He ran his hands over every divet and curve he could touch, and Marinette soon became lost in the haze, not knowing where her body ended and his began.

She melted into him, tilting her head at an angle so that they could fall deeper into each other. His body trembled when she nipped and stroked his lower lip with her tongue — his soft groan made her feel _utterly electrified_.

Though she wanted to keep exploring every little nuance about him, they would have time for that later. Marinette pulled away after a moment, short on breath and her sanity.

“I love you,” she rasped hoarsely. “I’ve always loved you, Dove.”

“I love you too, Angel,” he replied. “Always have, always will.”

Damian peppered a few kisses on her forehead and pulled her in for a tight embrace. “C’mon, let’s get you home.”

Marinette smiled into his neck, her heart swelling with pure bliss.

“I know I’m at home whenever I’m with you, love.”

* * *


End file.
